7 Proofs That a Real Catastrophe Is Happening on Beaches Around the World

Nowadays, the amount of plastic that is discarded and ends up in the environment has reached catastrophic proportions. There are 8.3 billion tons of plastic on the Planet, and more than half have not gone through a recycling process. The plastic that is found in the oceans and that is carried by waves and sea currents to the beach kills many marine beings and causes a huge problem for the environment. In addition to garbage, there is also a strong growth of algae, one of the causes of the massive death of fish. In addition, animals suffer from global warming and many other types of pollution.

Today we’re going to show you some recent disasters that happened on beaches around the world. It’s hard not to be pessimistic in this scenario, but these surveys are important to show people the importance of recycling and taking good care of the environment.

In June 2018, the idyllic beaches in the south of the Dominican Republic turned into a veritable plastic dump. Most of the material came from the capital, Santo Domingo, and other coastal cities. More than 10 million dollars have already been spent trying to clean up the waters. Hundreds of workers and volunteers joined this fight.

“This is something that happens often, especially after heavy rains and storms. Everyone uses the river and the beach as if it were a big dump. All you see in the photo are toxic substances”, says Cyrill Gutsch, creator of the organization Parley for the Oceans🇧🇷 Plastic on the coast of the Dominican Republic is just one symptom of the many problems the world is facing in this regard.

In May 2018, the French Caribbean colony paradise was attacked by sargasso, a type of seaweed. This had already happened 7 years ago. Hundreds of marine creatures, as well as fish, are trapped in these algae, and they all die. By standing still at a certain point in the ocean, these plants endanger the life of the deep sea.

Waves wash them ashore and they begin to release an unpleasant smell and to eliminate hydrogen sulphide. “We are facing an ecological catastrophe,” said Sylvie Gustave Dit Duflo, chair of the Environment Commission.

When inhaled for a long time, gases not only represent a worsening of quality of life, but pose a risk to health in general. The growth of yellow ‘seas’ prevents people from swimming. Researchers attribute the disorderly growth of algae to the use of fertilizers on land; they reach the sea and feed the algae, which grow out of control.

For many years, the wide beaches of Sochi, in the Black Sea region (and base of the Brazilian team in the Russian Cup), were a great place to rest. Before, the width of Imeretinskiy beach, one of the main ones in this beautiful city, was about 100 meters. In the summer of 2018, it has shrunk by about half a meter. This happened because of the construction of the Olympic Village for the 2014 Winter Games and the port on the Mzymta River.

Construction blocked the path of the stream of stones and sand, which was the composition material of Imeretinskiy beach. The sea began to take the pebbles with it, forming a void and destroying the beach. “If nothing is done in the next 5-10 years, then in some places the coast will be lost, it will be completely washed away by the sea,” say scientists from the Scientific Research Center of Marine Coasts in Sochi.

In recent years, the coast of Bali has been disappearing under an enormous amount of rubbish, mainly plastic material. “Swimming through rubbish is not pleasant at all”, points out Vanessa Moonshine, an Austrian tourist, “the waves bring plastic to the beach every day. It suffocates fish which, if eaten by people, can cause health problems including cancer.”

Indonesia is one of 40 countries taking part in the UN’s ‘Cleaning the Seas’ campaign, which aims to stop plastic pollution of the seas. The country’s government has pledged to reduce the amount of plastic thrown into the sea by 70% by 2025.

In the summer of 2018 there was a huge algae bloom in Florida. This led to the death of many fish and other marine life, and endangered the health of the population. On the southwest coast there was also the phenomenon of red tides, like never before, affecting more than 160 km of beaches. “The water is no longer blue-green. The beach is full of dead fish because of the bad state of the water”, he shared in the twitter Andrea Henderson, a tourist on vacation there.

At the same time, the polluted waters of the Okeechobee, the state’s largest freshwater lake, and the waters of the Santa Lucia and Caloosahatchee Basin have contributed to the growth of blue-green algae in the low-lying estuaries on both coasts. The large reproduction of algae was also caused by the high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus present in the fertilizer water used on agricultural land.

In early August, fishermen in the region of Gabes, in the Mediterranean country, were surprised by the large amount of dead fish on the beach. According to authorities, this happened due to ammonia poisoning and waste from phosphate production. Thousands of tons of poisonous substances are dumped into the oceans by a chemical manufacturer. The large amount of phospholipids thrown into the sea is not only harmful to the environment, but also to the health of the population.

During the summer of 2018 more and more tourists in Anapa complained about the large amount of algae in the Black Sea. The algae causing the problem here is cladophora. At high temperatures it reproduces very quickly, unlike what happens during the winter. This year the amount exceeded expectations. “Very dirty. It smells bad and the water looks like seaweed soup. Children swim and play, but the place is terrible,” said one visitor.

The water looks like a swamp. When algae is left in the sand, it starts to release an acid that smells really bad. Plant growth increased because sand with cladophora particles was brought to the site. This made them start to grow faster.

Do you consider yourself a responsible person when it comes to the environment? Have you been looking to reduce the use of plastic? How can we contribute to preserving the environment?